Irene In Christ

The words of the Lord to Hosea after his wife, Gomer, conceived and bore Jezreel, Lo-Ruhamah and Lo-Ammi in Hosea 2. For their mother has played the harlot; She who conceived them has behaved shamefully. For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers, Who give me my bread and my water, My wool and my linen, My oil and my drink.’ For she did not know That I gave her grain, new wine, and oil, And multiplied her silver and gold— Which they prepared for Baal. “And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, Of which she has said, ‘These are my wages that my lovers have given me.’ 'Their mother, she, her' referred to Gomer.  As I was reading it, I tried to imagine how God must have felt.  Gomer has received and enjoyed a whole lot of material blessings from the Lord - bread, water, wool, linen, oil, drink, grain, new wine, silver, gold, vines and fig trees.  Yet each of these item, Gomer attributed it to her lovers. She did not know that God was the one who gave ...

Continuing my story of songs -  Make Room .  Here's excerpt of the lyric.   Make Room Here is where I lay it down Every burden, every crown  Every lie and every doubt This is my surrender  And I will make room for You To do whatever You want to Shake up the ground of all my tradition Shake up the ground of all my religion  Your way is better Your way is better One Sunday morning in early June, as my family and I were on our way to church, this song (which I have never heard before) randomly played on our Spotify - 'Make Room'.  It has a lovely tune and I instantly loved it. That being said,  a strange and funny thing happened. As  I said, it was the first time I heard the song, but when I heard the words ' I will make room for You to do whatever You want to', tears welled up in my eyes.  Something inside of me resonated with the song. In fact, something inside of me resonated with every word of the lyric. When the chorus came again ...

For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Eph 5:30‭-32. The Lord seems to be speaking a lot to me recently on His church. After finish reading Hosea few weeks back, I was led to read the epistles of John. And before I started reading Hosea, I was reading Ephesians. In all these 3 books, I found Scripture (or truth) which I have read before stood out and tugged at my heart in a brand new way.  So, I have been taking it slowly, reading, pondering and waiting to listen for the Holy Spirit.  I wrote previously about us being betrothed to our Lord Jesus, reflecting on Hosea 2 as well as from Ephesians 5. You can read it  here .  To be completely honest, I was quite taken aback as the revelation from Eph 5 dawned on me. I had never noticed that verse which clearl...

Have you ever noticed this beautiful vow in Hosea 2:19-20?  I have not.  Not until I read it few weeks ago. My heart fluttered as I read the words. I thought to myself, 'This makes for a so much more beautiful marriage vow than the ones we usually hear. (Or say ourselves)'.  You know, the one that go like this -  I (name) take you (name) to be my lawfully wedded husband/ wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do us part.” Well, it sort of got me thinking and got me curious.  Where and when did this famous and popular marriage vow originate from? Who wrote it? Were these the original words? Or did it get innovated/ improvised? And how did it came to be something that all (well, at least for the Christian) couples utter during wedding ceremony? 🤔 So, I googled. And found this info.  The wedding vows as we know them originated in what is ...